A current trend is integration (collocation site) between a cellular base station and a WiFi wireless access point (Access Point, “AP” for short). On one hand, the AP can share various resources (power supply, a backhaul network, and the like) of the base station; on the other hand, the AP can offload data traffic from the base station. The cellular base station is integrated with the AP, that is, the cellular base station and the AP form an association relationship. This association relationship may be that one base station corresponds to one AP, or may be that one base station corresponds to multiple APs.
A current AP handover method is: A client sends, to a background server, base station information of a cell to which the client belongs, and the background server recommends, to the client according to the received base station information, an AP to which user equipment can be handed over; or when user equipment finds that a currently connected AP is unavailable, the user equipment searches to find a new connectable AP. Consequently, according to these methods, corresponding AP handover cannot be performed in a timely manner after user equipment is handed over to a target base station, or because an AP to which user equipment is handed over does not have an association relationship with a base station, the AP to which the user equipment is handed over is invalid.